Description: This course is a general introduction to conceptual, theoretical, and practical ideas concerning distance education, including the current status of distance learning and its impact on education. Students will become conversant in the terminology of the field of distance education, review its history, conduct research on specific areas of practice, investigate instructional and learning design strategies, explore the technologies commonly used, and understand the unique roles and responsibilities of the distance learner and the distance instructor. - Dr. Jason Huett
Project 2: Distance Education Instructional Deisgn Plan The student will create an instructional design plan for one module of online instruction concerning the topic of the student’s choosing. Topic: "Introduction to Financial Freedom."
Project 4: Henry County Cooperative Online Course Review Project This semester we are piloting a new and exciting online course review project in partnership with Henry County. This is an authentic, field-based, online learning experience that should prove to be very valuable and enlightening.
TOPIC: Taking the University into a new DE era - 3/17/11 - Peer: Trish Vlasnic
"David, you are hired! This is so well done, comprehensive and beautifully presented. I will have to pick up Jim Collins book. I avoided looking at the other presentations until I was finished. I was pleased to find some conceptual overlap but thought your presentation so professional that it is ready to be presented to The University. In your goals section, I felt that establishing mentoring relationships with other successful online programs was an excellent idea. I did not run across that concept in any of my research articles. The journal articles I read all related to innovation implementation in Australia and dealt with a very large interconnected University system where this form of support was expected. I wonder if universities in a competitive environment such as ours would be as collegial.Did you download a special template for your presentation or just use the ones in Windows 7? I really like the way it looks." -- Trish
My Closing Reflection
Parting thoughts
Here's the context: New university, new degree, new LMS, new teachers, new expectations, new tech tools, new library, new to doing it all distance education... Here's the bottom line for me: I loved it. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this semester. I nearly pulled my hair out the first month trying to overcome the "new" of it all but hung in there long enough to be able to get a little ahead and relax and enjoy the assignments. Highlights: Thanks to Dr. H. I discovered wikis! I have now built 8 wikis for my church and personal use. This one concept alone has revolutionize the way I do ministry and lead large groups of people. My wife wants me to build one for her counseling business to allow her clients to enagage material online in a private manner. I now know how to do this. My wife thinks I'm terrific (yay!). The assignments (and there were plenty of them) all contributed to my knowledge base of learning what DE is and how it works behind the scenes. From the conept map to the Instructional Design Planning paper to the building of my own learning module, each of these exercises helped me begin to comprehend how to do this. I now have confidence to do it again not only in future classes if called upon to do so but in the real world of academia as an Instructional Technology Specialist (once I earn that title). I learned a great deal from reading the posts in the discussion boards and was glad we have the gentle pressure to participate in those conversations. After I begin to learn more about my fellow students I found that I became engaged in what they were saying and it was not as much an assignment as it was me communiating with those in my social circle much like my Facebook or email account. I liked the module overviews, introductions, and especially the checklists to complete the module. I have a feeling that this particular course and its instructional design is a model, a template that other professors at UWG look to as they build out their own courses. The real sleeper success for me was to read the book "The World is Flat." I had to take the approach of eating an elephant one bite at a time to grind my way through this thick book but once I got into it I was hooked. I was surprised at how I would rather read for 45 minutes out of the book than watch another rerun of CSI. The Henry County project pulled alot of technology together. I was sitting at McDonald's last weekend with another leader of a Bible Institute helping him to build a wiki for the launch of a new module in the Bible school. I pointed his laptop to our Henry County wiki page and walked him through the wiki, the Voicethread experience, etc. and he was blown away. I talked about using Dropbox, Jing, VT, and wikis to pull off a cutting edge online learning experience for his students and he was totally for it all. That successful meeting was made possible by me taking part in this one class. Suggestions: I would love to have used the Wimba Pronto product somewhere along the way. I would have enjoy an optional synchronous chat experience just for the sake of doing it. I would have enjoyed a scheduled Skype experience with my instructor at least once during the semester. Those are minor suggestions because Rome wasn't built in a day and there's only so much that can be done in a single semester. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to continue at UWG in my Ed.S. pursuit this summer taking Internet Tools with Dr. Bray and Diffusion of Innovation with Dr. Moller. I feel like I have made a friend or two along the way in this course and have been greatly encouraged by my peers as you have cheered me along facing some pretty substantial impairments with my vision. I am grateful to Dr. H. for having a good balance of being intentionally available to me/us when we needed it but not micromanaging the whole course. I liked having to struggle to learn some stuff on my own like a butterfly trying to emerge from a cocoon. If you help it too much you will cripple the creature and it never will fly. Thanks to all for a wonderful first semester. - David Robertson, 4/27/11
About the Course
My Artifacts
.Project 1: Concept Map/Scenario/Quiz Questions
Create a concept map using XMIND, write an outline to teach a chapter, and design an assessment quiz over an assigned book chapter
Project 2: Distance Education Instructional Deisgn Plan
The student will create an instructional design plan for one module of online instruction concerning the topic of the student’s choosing. Topic: "Introduction to Financial Freedom."
Project 3: Hands-on Creation of Learning Module in CourseDen
The student will create an actual learning module in WebCT CourseDen following the earlier design plan.
Project 4: Henry County Cooperative Online Course Review Project
This semester we are piloting a new and exciting online course review project in partnership with Henry County. This is an authentic, field-based, online learning experience that should prove to be very valuable and enlightening.
7th Grade Science - Luella Middle School - Instructor: Justin Castile
8th Grade Business Technology - Luella Middle School - Instructor: Jason Watts
Supporting Artifacts
- Repositioning the University for the Future
Narrated PowerPoint outlining a possible scenario for the university to survive and thrive in tough economic timesTraditional Student vs. Online Student Comparison Chart
A comparison presented in a table format
My Discussion Posts
My Peer Reviews
Select posts from peers commenting on my work.TOPIC: Taking the University into a new DE era - 3/17/11 - Peer: Trish Vlasnic
"David, you are hired! This is so well done, comprehensive and beautifully presented. I will have to pick up Jim Collins book. I avoided looking at the other presentations until I was finished. I was pleased to find some conceptual overlap but thought your presentation so professional that it is ready to be presented to The University.In your goals section, I felt that establishing mentoring relationships with other successful online programs was an excellent idea. I did not run across that concept in any of my research articles. The journal articles I read all related to innovation implementation in Australia and dealt with a very large interconnected University system where this form of support was expected. I wonder if universities in a competitive environment such as ours would be as collegial.Did you download a special template for your presentation or just use the ones in Windows 7? I really like the way it looks." -- Trish
My Closing Reflection
Parting thoughtsHere's the context: New university, new degree, new LMS, new teachers, new expectations, new tech tools, new library, new to doing it all distance education... Here's the bottom line for me: I loved it. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this semester. I nearly pulled my hair out the first month trying to overcome the "new" of it all but hung in there long enough to be able to get a little ahead and relax and enjoy the assignments. Highlights: Thanks to Dr. H. I discovered wikis! I have now built 8 wikis for my church and personal use. This one concept alone has revolutionize the way I do ministry and lead large groups of people. My wife wants me to build one for her counseling business to allow her clients to enagage material online in a private manner. I now know how to do this. My wife thinks I'm terrific (yay!). The assignments (and there were plenty of them) all contributed to my knowledge base of learning what DE is and how it works behind the scenes. From the conept map to the Instructional Design Planning paper to the building of my own learning module, each of these exercises helped me begin to comprehend how to do this. I now have confidence to do it again not only in future classes if called upon to do so but in the real world of academia as an Instructional Technology Specialist (once I earn that title). I learned a great deal from reading the posts in the discussion boards and was glad we have the gentle pressure to participate in those conversations. After I begin to learn more about my fellow students I found that I became engaged in what they were saying and it was not as much an assignment as it was me communiating with those in my social circle much like my Facebook or email account. I liked the module overviews, introductions, and especially the checklists to complete the module. I have a feeling that this particular course and its instructional design is a model, a template that other professors at UWG look to as they build out their own courses. The real sleeper success for me was to read the book "The World is Flat." I had to take the approach of eating an elephant one bite at a time to grind my way through this thick book but once I got into it I was hooked. I was surprised at how I would rather read for 45 minutes out of the book than watch another rerun of CSI. The Henry County project pulled alot of technology together. I was sitting at McDonald's last weekend with another leader of a Bible Institute helping him to build a wiki for the launch of a new module in the Bible school. I pointed his laptop to our Henry County wiki page and walked him through the wiki, the Voicethread experience, etc. and he was blown away. I talked about using Dropbox, Jing, VT, and wikis to pull off a cutting edge online learning experience for his students and he was totally for it all. That successful meeting was made possible by me taking part in this one class. Suggestions: I would love to have used the Wimba Pronto product somewhere along the way. I would have enjoy an optional synchronous chat experience just for the sake of doing it. I would have enjoyed a scheduled Skype experience with my instructor at least once during the semester. Those are minor suggestions because Rome wasn't built in a day and there's only so much that can be done in a single semester. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to continue at UWG in my Ed.S. pursuit this summer taking Internet Tools with Dr. Bray and Diffusion of Innovation with Dr. Moller. I feel like I have made a friend or two along the way in this course and have been greatly encouraged by my peers as you have cheered me along facing some pretty substantial impairments with my vision. I am grateful to Dr. H. for having a good balance of being intentionally available to me/us when we needed it but not micromanaging the whole course. I liked having to struggle to learn some stuff on my own like a butterfly trying to emerge from a cocoon. If you help it too much you will cripple the creature and it never will fly. Thanks to all for a wonderful first semester. - David Robertson, 4/27/11
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